Building Connections to Support School Attendance
Grant funding from the National Partnership for Student Success will support the Community Foundation’s Attendance Matters initiative.
The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque has received $8,000 in grant funding from the National Partnership for Student Success to support its Attendance Matters initiative, a partnership with schools and nonprofits to tackle the issue of chronic absenteeism across Northeast Iowa.
The Community Foundation will use the funding, which lasts through June, to help schools build connections with families of students who are chronically absent or are at risk of being chronically absent (defined as missing 10% or more of school days). Schools in the four counties participating in the Community Foundation’s Attendance Matters initiative – Dubuque, Allamakee, Clayton and Jackson – are eligible to benefit from the grant.
“We are so grateful to the National Partnership for Student Success for recognizing the need to address chronic absenteeism across the country and supporting our work to make a difference locally,” says Shirley Horstmann, the Community Foundation’s college access and school attendance coordinator. “Local educators know their students and families best, and we will use this funding to give them the tools they need to reach those who face challenges with school attendance.”
A major part of this work is outreach and awareness. Many families are not aware of the long-term risks chronic absenteeism poses – or that missing just two school days per month or 18 per year qualifies a student as chronically absent.
The rate of chronic absenteeism has risen dramatically and has more than doubled since 2019. Missing at least 10% of school days can have negative academic consequences and increase students’ likelihood of dropping out. There are potential legal implications for families as well. Iowa law (Senate File 2435) states that school officials must notify a child’s parent or guardian and take legal action if a child has missed 20% of school days, excluding certain exceptions like illness.
Attendance is an issue among all students, but several student populations, including English learners and Pacific Islanders, experience chronic absenteeism at significantly higher rates than others. In 2022 46.9% of English learners and 68.8% of Pacific Islanders throughout the four counties were chronically absent, compared to 26.4% of all students.
"Schools and communities struggle to solve the issue of chronic absenteeism because the root causes can be complex,” Horstman says. “They include transportation, physical and brain health, school climate, family mobility, and poverty. Students who attend school regularly are more likely to graduate on time and be college- and career-ready."
The Community Foundation’s Attendance Matters initiative, a Local College Access Network (LCAN), is made possible by $60,000 in grant funding from the Bureau of Iowa College. It builds on the work of the Foundation’s Every Child Reads initiative, which focuses on improving reading proficiency by the end of third grade. School attendance, along with summer learning and school readiness, is one of the pillars of the initiative. As part of Attendance Matters, the Community Foundation is convening a coalition of nonprofit and educational partners, with a shared community goal of reducing chronic absenteeism by 4%. "This committee will study the root cause issues of absenteeism and collectively build a model to systemically address them," Horstman says.
Several organizations are already engaged in the committee, including the City of Dubuque, Dubuque Area Labor Management Council, Dubuque Community School District, IowaWorks, Jackson County Campaign for Grade-level Reading, Postville Community School District, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, United Way and the University of Dubuque.
